Teachers, faculty, and students deserve to feel safe at school. School staff need to feel safe to work, and students need to feel safe to learn.
School safety plans must be effective against all potential threats—including inclement weather. Extreme weather emergencies demand instantaneous, reliable action. How do school systems contribute to a culture of safety by adequately planning for extreme weather emergencies? The key is to build a school safety plan backed by comprehensive, effective technology.
A school safety plan should provide your school community with peace of mind. Establishing clear guidelines to be followed in the event of an emergency empowers students and faculty to prepare for, respond to, and recover from weather emergencies. The following best practices will help you develop a school safety plan that is crafted specifically for schools, students, and staff in the event of inclement weather.
Inclement Weather Considerations
Alerts for extreme weather. You can’t get ahead of potential weather disasters if you don’t see them coming. Ensure your school safety plan includes a way for faculty to be in the know when it comes to potential extreme weather.
Clear emergency procedures. Establishing clear courses of action for both school faculty and students is imperative to a successful school safety plan. Educating both of the aforementioned parties will avoid delays in evacuation. When informing students and staff of emergency procedures, ensure communication is effective and always available.
Planned evacuation route. If you are faced with a weather emergency that requires evacuation, having a planned route is mandatory for a successful school safety plan. Further, having access to innovative technology that outlines evacuation routes and prioritizes clear communication during evacuation is crucial to staff and student safety.
Visitor location. Schools often get visitors who aren’t employees or students, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be included in the school safety plan. Implementing technology that can allow you to pinpoint where each visitor is in the event of a weather emergency can be the difference between a successful evacuation and a disaster.
Craft Your School Safety Plan with CENTEGIX
School leaders, teachers, and staff are the backbone of our school systems. Evaluating school safety companies can be extremely stressful—but it doesn’t have to be. CENTEGIX is honored to provide schools with the tools they need to stay safe when disaster strikes.
CENTEGIX CrisisAlert™ is an advanced school safety solution designed to create a culture centered around safety. The CrisisAlert™ wearable badge, a panic button allowing for quick human action during emergencies, has a 100 percent adoption rate among school staff. CrisisAlert™ offers seamless integration with other emergency services technologies and precise, room-level location capabilities to ensure a rapid and effective response during moments of need.
CrisisAlert™ at a glance:
- One-button activation on wearable devices
- Immediate emergency notification to 911 dispatch
- Total campus coverage
- Audio and visual notification
- Precise location services
- Easy installation and integration with existing technologies
CENTEGIX has evolved beyond being just a point solution—it now boasts a full-scale safety platform. Safety Blueprint™ provides schools with digital mapping of their campuses—including information about safety devices like AEDs—which is invaluable information for staff and first responders in high-stress emergency situations.
CENTEGIX also allows school leaders to do what they do best—make the best decisions for their schools. Safety Blueprint™ gives school administrators the power to make informed decisions about where these devices should be housed. Additionally, the maps can be updated to meet each school’s unique needs and features as they change.
CENTEGIX Visitor Management also enhances the management of all school traffic including staff, student tardiness, and visitors. Enhanced Visitor Management is capable of locating all visitors on campus—which is vital to whole-community safety in the event of extreme weather.
CENTEGIX also proudly partners with the following school safety companies:
- Singlewire’s InformaCast® platform. This technology allows districts to leverage existing investments to better respond to, notify, and manage emergency incidents.
- RapidSOS. This securely links life-saving data from connected devices, apps, and sensors to RapidSOS safety agents, 911, and first responders globally to reduce response times and increase situational awareness during an on-campus emergency.
The success of a safety solution depends on its adoption and effectiveness. CrisisAlert™ users have repeatedly shared overwhelmingly positive experiences with the wearable CrisisAlert™ badge. From smooth implementation and peace of mind, CENTEGIX CrisisAlert™ receives high praise from school leaders, teachers, and staff. See one success story, thanks to campus-wide coverage:
“One of the biggest things had to do with the exterior. Florida, the weather’s brutal, right? I mean brutal…From the humidity to the hurricanes, what would the technology look like outside?” Chief John Newman shared, “And when we went through the installation, we were with the teams that did it. You know, we made some modifications, but it was a big deal to us that CrisisAlert™ worked outside. We have some of our schools that the distance from the main building to the football field might be a big Cypress Reserve. How are we going to get the technology to work out there on the football fields? And those questions, all those concerns were allayed when we did all the installation. We were there to make sure you guys were delivering exactly what you said you were.”
Every second matters. Set your school up for success in the event that disaster strikes. CENTEGIX is a national leader in developing innovative school safety solutions that help keep students and staff members safe from potential threats. Click here to learn more about what we can do for your district and to see a demo of the CENTEGIX Safety Platform.